Article transport apparatuses for transporting articles are used in picking stations in which articles are picked, for example. The specification of U.S. Pat. No. 8,713,899 (Patent Document 1) discloses an article transport apparatus (container-handling mechanism 22) for picking provided with a raising/lowering mechanism (elevator assembly 26). The article transport apparatus disclosed in Patent Document 1 is configured such that a product storage container (container T) supplied to a lower portion of the apparatus is raised to an upper portion of the apparatus using the raising/lowering mechanism, required products are picked at a position to which the product storage container is raised, and a remaining product storage container is then carried out through an article carry-out portion (extractor mechanism 32).
However, with the article transport apparatus disclosed in Patent Document 1, once the product storage container is raised using the raising/lowering mechanism, the next product storage container cannot be received until the raising/lowering mechanism is lowered again after picking is performed and the product storage container is carried out. Therefore, there is a drawback in that transport efficiency is poor. Moreover, while the raising/lowering mechanism is raised or lowered, the delivery portion (extractor assembly 32) of the article carry-out portion must be withdrawn from the picking position (pick area 23) in a timely manner so as not to interfere with the raising/lowering mechanism, and thus the apparatus configuration is complicated in terms of both structure and control.
A rotary bucket-type article transport apparatus as disclosed in German Patent No. 102013104423 (Patent Document 2) is also known. However, in the article transport apparatus disclosed in Patent Document 2, a plurality of supports (Zinkenaufnahmen 16) are each rotatably supported by two supporting rotators (Rotoren 14) that are eccentrically arranged in a state in which the rotation axes of the supports are shifted from one another. Therefore, there is a drawback in that the supports are likely to rattle, and have poor durability.